Beyond Buzzwords: AI Search Optimization Explained for SMBs
Marketers love to sound smart. Hence the host of new acronyms buzzing around this AI world: GEO, LLM, AEO to name a few. Here’s a quick guide (without the gobbledygook) for every small business owner to understand AI search optimization and how to start showing up in more AI Overviews and ChatGPT responses.
By Jared Frank | 7 min read
Last Updated: June 16, 2025
Generative AI creates new vocabulary. And that makes sense. New capabilities dictate new words and terms to communicate what they are, how they work, and why they are important. But sometimes, new words are just new branding for concepts we already understand. For example, AI search optimization (AISO) aka generative engine optimization (GEO) aka answer engine optimization (AEO) aka LLM optimization (LLMO) aka… well, search engine optimization (SEO).
If you understand classic SEO, you already understand AI SEO and all its new sets of letters floating around today’s alphabet soup.
I’ll boil it down for you. There is no AI secret sauce recipe, no philosophical change from how you’re already crafting content for SEO purposes. Just like traditional SEO, AI-powered search and large language models (LLMs) surface content from authoritative sources that is structured well and is contextually relevant to the user.
Well-established tactics for content creation remain intact with only small nuances sprinkled on top now. To learn GEO and AEO and LLMO, let’s focus on what subtleties matter, while revisiting the basics of SEO.
Key Takeaways
Google AI Overviews often trigger when users enter longer queries (six or more words) with informational intent (searches starting with “How”, “Why”, or “What”).
Google Gemini loves video content – YouTube is the LLM’s most cited domain. So brands must have a consistent video strategy with a presence on YouTube.
Small businesses should focus on owning their niche through data-rich, educational content amplified by trustworthy, industry-specific sites, discussion forums, and associations.
Google’s AI Overview: AI Search Optimization’s New Brass Ring
Before the generative AI revolution, the top spot on page one of Google defined SEO success. Now, marketers strive to be cited in AI Overviews.
I’m sorry to say there is no AI Overview recipe. But here’s what we do know. While they are not guaranteed, longer queries increase the probability of generating an AI Overview. The data varies slightly by source, but most research to date indicates a 70%-80% chance of a search result including an AI Overview when queries are six words or longer. And percentages increase even more for searches with informational intent – those queries starting with “How”, “Why”, or “What”.
What’s the Same:
Marketers must optimize content for long-tail keywords and phrases.
What’s Different:
Those key phrases should be six words or more.
AI Search Optimization Requires Brand Trust
If you want to show up in AI Overviews, you must be trusted. Brand authority and content quality matter more than ever. And that’s not going to happen overnight. Brand trust is won over time.
Content marketers earn brand authority with search engines and LLMs with consistent calendars filled with blogs, step-by-step guides, case studies, original research, tools, videos, social posts, webinars, white papers – all the usual content types. This content shares opinions, expert advice, and insights to position the author and his or her company as thought leaders.
Third-party validation also boosts authority in LLMs and AI-powered search. Mentions by media outlets, user reviews, backlinks on other websites, and unique trust indicators such as industry awards all signal to AI that your brand is relevant and reliable.
What’s the Same:
In-depth, elite-level content, consistent cadence, user reviews, and backlinks win the attention of AI-powered search models and large language models.
What’s Different:
AI Overviews and other AI search products increase the frequency of zero-click searches.
How To Get Cited on Google Gemini
Gemini rewards sources with depth and variety, and it loves video content (YouTube is its most cited domain). So brands need to be on YouTube accompanied by a mix of content on their sites as well as relevant media outlets.
Generally, Google favors specific, content-rich pages over homepages or landing pages. Vendor-authored product blogs will get picked up by Gemini, so marketers should consider increasing content that includes well-structured listicles or guides. Google also favors brands with a positive presence on LinkedIn and other community content on sites such as Reddit and Quora.
What’s the Same:
Marketers need to publish kickass content.
What’s Different:
Brands need a wider distribution strategy for their content beyond their own websites. They absolutely must be on YouTube, and it helps to be active on community channels like Reddit or LinkedIn.
How to Get Cited on ChatGPT
ChatGPT demonstrates stricter citation behavior than Google. It favors established, non-commercial sources, Wikipedia being its most cited source. Reputable news outlets like Reuters and Financial Times are also often cited.
Different from Gemini, ChatGPT does not cite promotional content. It avoids vendor blogs or product pages. And it also avoids user-generated content like social media.
What’s the Same:
Brands establish authority through a broad distribution of mentions and backlinks.
What’s Different:
The sources of those backlinks must be non-commercial sources (e.g. Wikipedia, news outlets, major blogs) known to be neutral and unbiased when publishing reference-style materials.
How To Get Cited on Perplexity
Perplexity differs from other AI search models in that it surfaces industry-specific platforms and adjusts industries depending on the topic highlighted in the search query. For example, if a user enters a query centered on personal finance, Perplexity is likely to cite sources like Nerd Wallet or Investopedia. So if your brand is in a niche space and you become the go-to source for your category, you have a great opportunity to be cited by Perplexity.
What’s the Same:
AI models love brands featured on third-party sites and discussed favorably on relevant industry forums.
What’s Different:
Marketers should publish educational content with data and specificity, as well as partner with trustworthy, industry-specific sites and associations to amplify their content and expertise.
The Bottom Line on AI Search Optimization
Small business owners should not get hung up on creating strategies for each individual LLM or AI-powered search vehicle. The citation patterns are similar across every model. More generally, AI visibility DOES NOT need to be a separate strategy for small businesses. AI search optimization is an outcome of excellent SEO execution.
Ten Easy Tactics for Any Small Business to Optimize Content for AI-Powered Search
Whether it’s ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Grok, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, or good ol’ Google Search, small business content marketers must:
- Create high-quality, data-driven content that meets EEAT standards.
- Within that content, showcase expertise, cite sources, keep information updated, and gather positive user testimonials.
- Structure that content using accessible, skimmable formatting – key takeaways, bullets, numbered lists, subheads, etc.
- Add clear, direct answers to common questions (how, why, and what) in your content.
- Quote customers and users (AI models love real voices).
- Optimize for long-tail keywords and conversational phrases (six or more words that mirror how people talk to AI tools).
- Cultivate a more complete digital footprint, most notably by starting a YouTube channel.
- Engage in relevant communities on Reddit and Quora.
- Partner with industry-specific associations and forums to amplify content.
- Follow all tried-and-true SEO best practices.
Because AI-powered search models reward quality of content more than quantity of content, small and medium-sized businesses can compete for AI attention within their niche. SMBs that historically didn’t have time, budget, or resources to pump out hundreds of articles and thousands of videos now don’t have to worry about those restrictions. Nowadays, more content doesn’t help you in the algorithms if that content isn’t any good. To win, small businesses can go all-in on the three to six core pillars of their business and create unique content with expert commentary and data around those pillars.
The times they are a-changin’ fast. In such times, it helps to remain focused on substance. So ignore all the new buzzwords infiltrating modern marketing lexicon and simply execute sound SEO. In the process, you’ll optimize for all the other “EOs” and futureproof your visibility as search becomes more powered by AI. 
Do you need help with SEO writing for your business? Let’s chat.
Write to Jared at jared@seat36.com.
RELATED CONTENT
Time Is a Flat Circle: The Return of Impressions for Zero-Click Searches
What goes around comes around. With more zero-click searches happening every day, marketers are observing drops in CTRs and other performance data. As a result, awareness-based KPIs are back on the front burner.
Blank Page to Published: How to Write SEO-Ready Content in 8 Simple Steps
The reports of the death of SEO are greatly exaggerated. Conversational AI tools like ChatGPT have shifted how people conduct research, but they don’t make SEO obsolete. They just require businesses to adapt.